Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

Sharing Stupid $H*T With Friends And Followers: The First Amendment Rights Of College Athletes To Use Social Media, Meg Penrose

Meg Penrose

This paper takes a closer look at the First Amendment rights of college athletes to access social media while simultaneously participating in intercollegiate athletics. The question posed is quite simple: can a coach or athletic department at a public university legally restrict a student-athlete's use of social media? If so, does the First Amendment provide any restraints on the type or length of restrictions that can be imposed? Thus far, neither question has been presented to a court for resolution. However, the answers are vital, as college coaches and athletic directors seek to regulate their athletes in a constitutional manner.

Tinkering With Success: College Athletes, Social Media And The First Amendment, Meg Penrose

Meg Penrose

Good law does not always make good policy. This article seeks to provide a legal assessment, not a policy directive. The policy choices made by individual institutions and athletic departments should be guided by law, but absolutely left to institutional discretion. Many articles written on college student-athletes' social media usage attempt to urge policy directives clothed in constitutional analysis. In this author's opinion, these articles have lost perspective-constitutional perspective. This article seeks primarily to provide a legal and constitutional assessment so that schools and their athletic departments will have ample information to then make their own policy choices.

The Law And Science Of Video Game Violence: What Was Lost In Translation?, 31 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 297 (2013), William K. Ford

William K. Ford

"[A]s a general rule," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes, "courts don't do science very well."' Susan Haack, a professor of law and philosophy, elaborates on why this may be true, offering several reasons for "deep tensions" between science and law. The reasons offered by Haack may be less of a concern where the dispute involves litigation against the government on significant questions of public policy. Recent decisions assessing the constitutionality of laws restricting minors' access to violent video games therefore offer an opportunity to examine how well the courts handled scientific evidence in a situation lacking some of the …

Copy Game For High Score: The First Video Game Lawsuit, 20 J. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2012), William K. Ford

William K. Ford

Commentators and industry historians generally agree that the multi-billion dollar video game industry began forty years ago in November 1972 with Atari's release of Pong. Pong is among the simplest of video games: a version of ping pong or tennis requiring little more to play than a ball, two paddles, a scoring indicator, and a couple of memorable sounds. While it was not the first video game, Pong was the first video game hit. With unauthorized copying of a successful product occurring, it is not surprising that a lawsuit resulted in the fall of 1973, one that predates the more …

Games Are Not Coffee Mugs: Games And The Right Of Publicity, 29 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. L.J. 1 (2012), William K. Ford, Raizel Liebler

William K. Ford

Are games more like coffee mugs, posters, and T-shirts, or are they more like books, magazines, and films? For purposes of the right of publicity, the answer matters. The critical question is whether games should be treated as merchandise or as expression. Three classic judicial decisions, decided in 1967, 1970, and 1973, held that the defendants needed permission to use the plaintiffs' names in their board games. These decisions judicially confirmed that games are merchandise, not something equivalent to more traditional media of expression. As merchandise, games are not like books; instead, they are akin to celebrity-embossed coffee mugs. To …

The Evolution Of Internet Service Providers From Partners To Adversaries: Tracking Shifts In Interconnection Goals And Strategies In The Internet’S Fifth Generation, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

At the Internet’s inception, carriers providing the bit switching and transmission function largely embraced expanding connections and users as a primary service goal. These ventures refrained from metering traffic and charging for carriage based on the assumption that traffic volumes roughly matched, or that traffic measurement was not worth the bother in light of external funding from government grants. Most Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) bartered network access through a process known as peering in lieu of metering traffic and billing for network use. As governments removed subsidies and commercial carriers invested substantial funds to build larger and faster networks, identifying …

Déjà Vu All Over Again: Questions And A Few Suggestions On How The Fcc Can Lawfully Regulate Internet Access, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

This paper will examine the FCC’s March, 2015 Open Internet Order with an eye to assessing whether and how the Commission can successfully defend its decision in an appellate court. On two prior occasions, the FCC failed to convince a reviewing court that proposed regulatory safeguards do not unlawfully impose common carrier duties on private carriers. The Commission now has opted to reclassify broadband Internet access as common carriage, a decision sure to trigger a third court appeal. The FCC Open Internet Order offers several, possibly contradictory, justifications for its decision to apply Title II of the Communications Act, subject …

Wide Right: How Isp Immunity And Current Laws Are Off The Mark In Protecting The Modern Athlete On Social Media, Dominick J. Mingione

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

“[Y]our tranny looking dad is a disgrace to American football,” “I would rape the shit out of her,” and “[The] [B]ears are easier than you on prom night,” are just a sampling of some of the alarmingly harassing tweets received by Chloe Trestman between the night of November 9, 2014 and November 10, 2014. Who is Chloe Trestman, and what could she have possibly done to warrant such abuse? Chloe’s father is Marc Trestman, the head coach of the Chicago Bears. And the twitter vitriol, or “twitriol,” directed toward Chloe was in response to the Bears’ blowout loss to their …

Transforming “Transformative Use”: The Growing Misinterpretation Of The Fair Use Doctrine, Caile Morris

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

Starting in late 2012, and continuing into late 2013, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York wreaked havoc on the traditional interpretation of the copyright infringement defense known as “fair use.” Two cases stemming from the advent of the Google Books Project are Author’s Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust and Author’s Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc. These cases adopted a controversial interpretation of the fair use defense, codified in 17 U.S.C. § 107, when each case determined that the mass digitization of thousands of books constituted fair use merely because the digitization was what is known …

Campbell At 21/Sony At 31, Jessica Litman

Jessica Litman

When copyright lawyers gather to discuss fair use, the most common refrain is its alarming expansion. Their distress about fair use’s enlarged footprint seems completely untethered from any appreciation of the remarkable increase in exclusive copyright rights. In the nearly 40 years since Congress enacted the 1976 copyright act, the rights of copyright owners have expanded markedly. Copyright owners’ demands for further expansion continue unabated. Meanwhile, they raise strident objections to proposals to add new privileges and exceptions to the statute to shelter non-infringing uses that might be implicated by their expanded rights. Copyright owners have used the resulting uncertainty …

Network Neutrality And Consumer Demand For “Better Than Best Efforts” Traffic Management, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

This paper assesses whether and how ISPs can offer quality of service enhancements, at premium prices for full motion video, while still complying with the new rules and regulations established by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in March, 2015. The paper explains that having made the controversial decision to reclassify all forms of Internet access as a telecommunications service, the FCC increases regulatory uncertainty. In particular, the FCC has failed to identify instances where “retail ISPs,” serving residential broadband subscribers, can offer quality of service enhancements that serve real consumer wants without harming competition and the ability of most content …

Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming And The Boundary Between Jobs And Games, Julian Dibbell

Julian Dibbell

When does work become play, and play work? Courts have considered the question in a variety of economic contexts, from student athletes seeking recognition as employees to professional blackjack players seeking to be treated by casinos just like casual players. Here I apply the question to a relatively novel context: that of online gold farming, a gray-market industry in which wage-earning workers, largely based in China, are paid to play online fantasy games (MMOs) that reward them with virtual items their employers sell for profit to the same games’ casual players. Gold farming is clearly a job (and under the …

, The Law School Of The Future: How The Synergies Of Convergence Will Transform The Very Notion Of “Law Schools” During The 21st Century From “Places” To “Platforms”, Jeffrey A. Van Detta

Jeffrey A. Van Detta

This article discusses the disruptive change in American (and trans-national) legal education that the convergence of technology and economics is bringing to legal education. It posits, and then defends, the following assertion about "law schools of the future":

“Law schools will no longer be ‘places’ in the sense of a single faculty located on a physical campus. In the future, law schools will consist of an array of technologies and instructional techniques brought to bear, in convergence, on particular educational needs and problems.”

This paper elaborates on that prediction, discussing the ways in which technology will positively impact legal education, …

Nsfw: An Empirical Study Of Scandalous Trademarks, Megan M. Carpenter

Megan M Carpenter

This project is an empirical analysis of trademarks that have received rejections based on the judgment that they are “scandalous." It is the first of its kind. The Lanham Act bars registration for trademarks that are “scandalous” and “immoral.” While much has been written on the morality provisions in the Lanham Act generally, this piece is the first scholarly project that engages an empirical analysis of 2(a) rejections based on scandalousness; it contains a look behind the scenes at how the morality provisions are applied throughout the trademark registration process. We study which marks are being rejected, what evidence is …

Weighing Down The Cloud: The Public Performance Right And The Internet After Aereo, Samuel J. Dykstra

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

In American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., the Supreme Court concluded that Aereo’s streaming of broadcast television programs over the Internet to its subscribers was an infringing public performance under the Copyright Act of 1976 (“Copyright Act”). The Court interpreted the “Transmit Clause” of the Copyright Act to mean that when determining whether a performance created by a transmission is to “the public” the relevant audience is not that of a particular transmission, but of the work being transmitted. Thus, it did not matter that Aereo operated by creating unique copies and via separate transmissions available to only one …

Did Copyright Kill The Radio Star? Why The Recorded Music Industry And Copyright Act Should Welcome Webcasters Into The Fold, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 292 (2015), Patrick Koncel

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The Copyright Act has not kept pace with the times, and the next revolution is going full stream ahead. Rather than adapt, entrenched interests at the Copyright table push for more protection, while new technologies are demonized and underrepresented. The resulting Copyright Act’s provisions relating to internet-based radio, ranging from passive over-the-air broadcasts to fully interactive music hosting sites, are a patchwork of accommodations and concessions to these interests. For all non-interactive services, licensing music typically occurs within the Copyright Act’s compulsory licensing system. For interactive webcasters, licensing negotiations take place with the copyright holders directly. These negotiations have proven …

The Conflict Between An Athlete’S Right Of Publicity And The First Amendment, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 117 (2015), Edward Kuester

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The recent rise of fantasy sports has created a conflict between an athlete’s right of publicity and the First Amendment of the Constitution. The legal question being discussed is whether athletes have a right of publicity in their identity, specifically their performance statistics and biographical information. If a right of publicity violation does exist, courts will have to determine whether a fantasy provider’s First Amendment privilege can prevail against an athlete’s publicity rights. This comment examines recent litigation surrounding athletes’ identities and the problems courts have in balancing the conflict between an athlete’s right of publicity and the First Amendment. …

Danger In The Dmca Safe Harbors: The Need To Narrow What Constitutes Red Flag Knowledge, Hank Fisher

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Total Eclipse Of The Tweet: How Social Media Restrictions On Student And Professional Athletes Affect Free Speech, Tehrim Umar

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Professional Video Gaming: Piracy That Pays, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 217 (2015), Elizabeth Brusa

UIC Law Review

This Comment will focus on the legal implications of end user gamers who profit from the infringing use of copyrighted video gameplay content.